


The Spray Bottle of Death and Other Near-Disasters

by BlueMoonVonIdaho



Series: Kitty Tendencies [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Also what am I even doing?, Hints of Adrinette, Marinette is so confused, Nino gets to meet someone's parents and they don't treat him like crap yay, Nino is definitely buying a spray bottle, Plagg needs to stop thinking cat antics are funny, bug behavior, cat behavior, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 03:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6938287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueMoonVonIdaho/pseuds/BlueMoonVonIdaho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Working title: "Bug Tendencies, and Adrien and Water Don’t Mix. Also, There is Licking"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Spray Bottle of Death and Other Near-Disasters

**Author's Note:**

> Not as much of Adrien being a cat in here, but I threw in some of Marinette's bug tendencies to compensate. Also, I really wanted Nino to meet Marinette's father, if only to contrast his reaction with Adrien's father. (You suck, Mr. Agreste. What kind of dad won't let his son have a birthday party and then throws his best friend out of the house? Sheesh.)

Nino smiled happily at the smell of fresh bread that permeated the Dupain-Cheng bakery. He’d visited before, while running errands for his parents, but this was the first time he was here as a guest. He would have been perfectly happy to just stand there and breathe in the scent (what was it about the smell of bread that was so relaxing?) but Marinette’s parents had other ideas.

Tom Dupain, who was as warm and friendly as the bakery he ran, waved at Nino. “Hello, there, sonny! Is there something I can get for you?”

The DJ chuckled and shook his head. “Not today. I’m here to work on a project with Marinette.”

“Oh! You’re one of Marinette’s classmates!” Tom leaned forward over the counter and shook Nino’s hand. “It’s always good to see Marinette having her friends over, even if it’s just for schoolwork. What’s your name, sonny?”

“Nino, dude—I mean, sir.”

Tom laughed at that, throwing his head back and shaking with the force. “No need to call me sir, Nino. It’s just Tom. Sabine!” he called over his shoulder. “Come on out here and meet Marinette’s classmate!”

Sabine, Marinette’s mother, greeted Nino just as warmly as her husband had. Upon learning that the teen was there to work on a school project with Marinette and a few of their other friends (namely, Adrien and Alya), she smiled and thrust a plate of cookies into his hands before pointing up the stairs. “It’s nice to meet you, Nino. Marinette’s in her room.”

Nino ascended the stairs and somehow fumbled the trapdoor open with one hand while balancing the cookies with the other. Marinette was on the opposite side of the room, watering a pair of plants perched on her windowsill with a spray bottle. At the sound of the trapdoor opening, she turned and smiled at him.

“Hey, Nino!” Marinette greeted cheerfully. She took the cookies and placed them on her desk, allowing the DJ to scramble the rest of the way through the trapdoor. “You’re the first one here, so just sit down and make yourself comfortable.” She gestured to the chaise lounge nearby.

Nino plopped down while Marinette returned her attention to misting the plants with water. He could see at least two more from where he was sitting, perched on various surfaces. Marinette must really like plants.

He didn’t realize until Marinette looked up at him that he’d voiced the last thought aloud. “Sorry,” he muttered sheepishly.

“No, it’s fine.” Marinette waved him off. “I do like plants. Normally, these would be out on the balcony, but the last few nights have been pretty cold, so I brought them inside.”

Before Nino could reply, Marinette’s attention snapped to something outside the window, and she let out a startled squeak. Her face had gone red, a reaction that could only mean—

“OH MY GOSH, it’s Adrien! Here, hold this, Nino!” Without waiting for an answer, Marinette thrust the spray bottle at Nino, ripped the trapdoor open, and hurtled down the stairs.

“Uh…okay.” The DJ juggled the spray bottle from hand to hand for a few seconds before finally getting a firm grip. “Wasn’t expecting that.” His words went unheard—Marinette was long gone. A few moments later, the sound of voices drifted up from the bakery. He could hear Marinette’s parents, a few garbled noises that probably came from Marinette herself, and, on the edge of his hearing, Adrien, quiet and polite as usual.

At a loss for anything else to do, Nino chose to have a quick look around Marinette’s room. He admired the designs and sketches taped to one wall, puzzled over her sewing machine for a few minutes, and then moved on to look at the two decorated plant pots sitting on the windowsill. He could tell when Alya arrived—her voice resonated from downstairs, loud and enthusiastic, almost clear enough for him to make out the words.

“Gotcha!”

Someone grabbed Nino’s shoulders from behind. The teen, who hadn’t heard anyone approaching and _definitely_ hadn’t expected to have someone grabbing him and yelling in his ear, jumped nearly two feet into the air. The moment he landed, he whipped around and defended himself with the only weapon immediately available to him—the spray bottle.

The beginnings of Adrien’s laughter cut off when the mist hit him in the face from point-blank range. He instinctively jumped backward, away from the uncomfortable dampness, and hissed a loud threat at his attacker.

Half a second after that, both teens realized what had happened and relaxed. That wasn’t to say they weren’t irritated. Nino was still a little shaky from being scared half to death, not to mention his best friend hissing at him (which was another cat thing to add to an ever-growing list of behaviors to watch out for). Adrien was annoyed by both the water and his own reaction to it.

Nino recovered first. “Seriously, dude?”

“You sprayed me! In the face!” Adrien protested.

“Because you snuck up on me and scared me half to death!” Nino retorted.

“Well, if I’d known you were going to do that, I wouldn’t have done it!”

Both boys scowled at each other, standing eye-to-eye. The contest of wills might have gone on much longer if Nino hadn’t remembered that he was (from Adrien’s perspective, at least) armed and dangerous.

Adrien realized what Nino was planning at the exact same moment the DJ began to raise the spray bottle. “Nino, don’t you dare—”

With what he hoped was the same deadpan look Adrien wore right before he shoved something off of a table, Nino held up the spray bottle and squirted his friend again. Adrien jerked backward, although he didn’t hiss this time. He backed away warily, putting himself out of range of the sprayer.

“Now we’re even,” Nino announced.

“Very funny,” Adrien sighed. Plagg snickered loudly from inside his pocket.

“I should buy one of these. It’d be handy for when you’re doing one of your cat things.”

Adrien let out an involuntary hiss at the thought. Nino squirted him again.

“Nino! That’s not funny!”

Nino laughed over the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. “You’re wrong, dude. You are so wrong.”

§§§

After nearly an hour of working on the project, none of the group members could take it anymore. Even Adrien, who maintained nearly perfect grades, had to admit that the work was too dull for him to keep going.

Getting ice cream was Alya’s idea. She met little resistance as she dragged the group out to an ice cream cart that had set up shop on a nearby corner. The nights might be cold, but the days were still hot enough to warrant plenty of business for the ice cream vendor, who dished out ice cream cones to the four teens with a smile.

“So I was thinking,” Alya began, taking a huge lick of her ice cream. “We should go see that new movie that’s coming out next week. I hear a few shots caught Ladybug and Chat Noir in the background.”

Nino shook his head. “Of course you’d want to see a movie just because it happens to have your favorite superheroes in it for two seconds.”

“Well, the movie’s supposed to be good, too!” the blogger protested. She turned to Adrien and Marinette, who had yet to voice opinions on the suggestion. “Help me out here!”

Adrien shrugged noncommittally. “It probably wouldn’t hurt to go see it.” He glanced at Marinette. “What do you think?”

Obviously not expecting to be addressed, Marinette squeaked and began, “Well, I—um…uh…um…” In her distraction, she let her double-decker ice cream cone tilt, and the top scoop fell, plopping onto the back of Adrien’s hand. “Ahh! Oh no, I’m sorry—!”

Adrien cut her off gently before she could go any further. “No, no, it’s fine.” He shook the scoop of ice cream off of his hand and into a nearby trash can. “At least it didn’t make a mess.”

Alya said something about grabbing napkins and dragged Nino away. Adrien shook his hand over the trash can to dislodge the last drops of ice cream and then pulled it back. What remained was slowly dying, leaving behind a sticky, uncomfortable residue that was difficult to ignore.

Marinette stared at Adrien with a look that could only be described as “deer in headlights,” her face slowly going as pink as the remaining scoop of strawberry ice cream on her cone. Adrien sighed mentally. He knew Marinette was smart and funny and kind—around everyone except him. It was especially galling because he wanted to get to know her better, but every time he tried to talk to her, she ended up running away or hiding behind Alya. What he wouldn’t give to have one coherent conversation with her…

“So,” he began in an attempt to make small talk. “What do you think about that movie?”

While Marinette was searching for an answer, Adrien turned his attention to his hand and gave it a quick lick to remove some of the stickiness. The comforting rasp of his tongue across his skin and the sweet taste of strawberry ice cream encouraged him to give his hand another lick, and another.

Marinette couldn’t resist a tiny giggle at the sight of Adrien nursing the back of his hand with long, lazy swipes of his tongue. It reminded her vaguely of another feline friend of hers, and that thought helped her calm down long enough to formulate an answer to Adrien’s question.

“I-I think that’s a great idea.”

“I’m still sorry about your ice cream, by the way,” Adrien continued between licks. “You can trade with me, if you like. I don’t really care.”

Marinette’s eyes lingered on his strawberry-covered hand, and she had to force down a goofy smile before replying, “N-no! No, it’s my fault, you don’t have to give up your ice cream for me! I don’t even like cold things all that much, so really, you’re doing me a favor—I mean, uh…I don’t know what I mean, I…ugh…” She attempted to hide her very pink cheeks behind one hand and mumbled something under her breath.

Adrien responded with an amused chuckle. “Happy to be of service, then.” He threw in a wink for good measure, letting his inner Chat slip to the surface for a moment. The ice cream cone in his clean hand was completely forgotten by now in favor of chasing down the lingering traces of strawberry ice cream on its opposite with his tongue. The sensation was oddly relaxing, and Adrien had to wonder why he’d never figured out this trick before.

It was perhaps for the best that Alya and Nino chose that moment to return with the napkins.

Nino’s eyes widened at the sight of his friend licking his hand like it was a cat’s paw. He started to raise his hands, glanced down at his ice cream cone, and modified the gesture, using one hand to make the shape of a cat ear on top of his head. Adrien paused mid-lick, wondering what Nino was worried about. The cat ears were only meant for when Adrien was doing something cat-like, and he was pretty sure he wasn’t doing anything…oh.

Quickly, he snatched his hand away from his mouth and reached for one of the napkins Alya was offering. This was the problem with his cat behaviors—they felt so natural that half the time, he didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong until Nino pointed it out. Now that he knew, he could _cat_ -ch (heh) it next time, but he was glad Marinette hadn’t realized something was off.

“Thanks, Alya,” Adrien said, in an attempt to conceal his embarrassment. He scrubbed awkwardly at the back of his hand with one of the napkins before balling it up and pitching it into the garbage can. He didn’t look at Nino, who was no doubt wearing an exasperated look and formulating a lecture (“I leave you alone for _five_ minutes, dude…”).

“Looks to me like you took care of it all by yourself,” Alya replied cheerfully. She gave the back of her hand an exaggerated lick and giggled when Marinette flushed.

“I am _so_ buying a spray bottle,” Nino muttered. Adrien glared at him before turning his attention to his rapidly melting ice cream cone.

**Author's Note:**

> Quick shout-out to Quedaboss (how do you do links because I don't know) for the idea of Nino and Adrien having a hand signal to indicate cat behavior, and for being a sounding board in general for my wacky ideas. You go, girl!


End file.
